Amneal Pharmaceuticals Co-Founders Chirag Patel & Chintu Patel Return as Co-CEOs

Amneal Pharmaceuticals Co-Founders Chirag Patel & Chintu Patel Return as Co-CEOs

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that its Co-Founders, Chirag Patel and Chintu Patel, have been named Co-Chief Executive Officers, effective immediately. Paul Meister has been appointed to the Board of Directors as Chairman. Additionally, Paul Bisaro and Rob Stewart have resigned as Executive Chairman, and President and Chief Executive Officer, respectively, and have stepped down from the Board. Mr. Stewart will serve as an advisor to the Company through a transition period.

“The Board believes there are no better executives to help Amneal return to growth and maximize shareholder value than the operators who built it,” said Ted Nark, an independent director of the Board. “Recent industry headwinds and increased competition continue to put pressure on the Company. In order to succeed in today’s environment, Amneal must move decisively and prioritize its key strategic initiatives that will drive value for our shareholders. Chirag and Chintu possess both the leadership skills and the requisite strategic, operational, manufacturing and R&D expertise to execute on these efforts.”

Messrs. Patel said, “When we founded Amneal 17 years ago, our primary goal was to build a world-class pharmaceutical company focused on providing affordable medicines to patients. Through years of strategic investment and collaboration with some of the industry’s top scientific and medical talent, we established Amneal as a true leader in the generics sector. Indeed, we are proud to have been recognized as the fastest growing generics company by revenue for over 10 years. From the outset, we always focused on making the right strategic and operational decisions for the business, including executing on our vision, investing in organic growth and embracing strategic M&A.”

“As founders of the Company, we built this business from the ground up. While we recognize the challenges ahead of us, we are excited by the opportunity to lead Amneal in its next phase of growth. Our priorities today include: revitalizing the Generics platform, including injectables; continuing to grow the Specialty franchise; rationalizing costs to expand margins; and improving cash flow. Taken together, this strategy is designed to position Amneal to successfully execute on business development and M&A opportunities,” said Chirag Patel.

“Over the past years, as entrepreneurs, we have bolstered our deep operational expertise by actively managing other companies in adjacent areas within life sciences, including specialty pharma, biosimilar product development and novel drug discovery. We intend to leverage this experience in our new roles as Co-CEOs of Amneal. And with a substantial ownership stake in the Company, our interests are closely aligned with those of our fellow shareholders and other stakeholders,” said Chintu Patel.

Messrs. Patel concluded, “We are grateful to Paul and Rob for their contributions in leading Amneal over the last year. We look forward to propelling the Company through its next stage of growth, and to working together with the Board, including our new Chairman, management team and all Amneal employees and customers to reach our full potential.”

Mr. Meister said, “I am pleased to join the Board of Amneal as Chairman at this inflection point for the Company. I am drawn to Amneal because of its impressive history of developing technologies and intense focus on high quality products that improve millions of lives. Chirag and Chintu are visionary leaders and, given the rapidly changing industry landscape, I’m excited to partner with them. Together, we can leverage our collective operational and M&A expertise to create value.”

“It was an honor to work with the Amneal team over the last 15 months,” said Mr. Bisaro. “I am confident that the people of this Company will continue to have a positive impact and drive business forward.”

“Amneal has many exciting drug development and new product launch opportunities,” said Mr. Stewart. “I want to thank my colleagues on the management team and all Amneal employees, who continue to demonstrate incredible commitment to the Company.”

Messrs. Patel have resigned as Co-Chairmen of the Board and will remain on the Board as Directors. Messrs. Patel have also resigned from their executive positions at other companies. Additionally, Robert L. Burr, Janet S. Vergis and Dharmendra Rama have resigned as independent directors on the Company’s Board. The Company has retained Korn Ferry, a nationally-recognized executive search firm, to assist in the process of identifying independent candidates for the vacated Board seats.